SHARM EL-SHEIKH - The coral reef and outstanding environment of the Red Sea on the shores of the coastal resort of Sharm el-Sheikh are facing severe danger, the Chamber of Diving Tourism and Marine Activities warned. “We call on the Ministry of Environment to confront the dangers threatening the coral reef and natural landscape,” the chamber said in a statement. “The chamber stresses that the coral reef is a main source of tourist revenues in the area and points out that the hotels and tourist villages are putting up preventive netting to keep out sharks,” it added. Sharks became a major concern last year at Sharm el-Sheikh when they mauled several foreign tourists. This netting is in contradiction to local and international agreements stipulating that the environment and marine biological diversity should be protected. “The Coral Bay Hotel in Sharm el-Sheikh intends to erect giant preventive nets in front of its beach, off which is one of the most important sites of diving in Sharm el-Sheikh,” the statement said. “The preventive netting has disastrous environmental, tourist and economic effects,” claimed the chamber in its statement. “We call on the Ministry of Environment not to permit hotels and tourist villages to put up these nets,” it added. “The hotels can establish preventive netting in front of the sandy bays, which are free of coral,” said the statement.
